CRMC officials travel to Nova Scotia to discuss marine spatial planning, Ocean SAMP

At the request of officials from Nova Scotia, members of the Ocean Special Area Management Plan (Ocean SAMP) team – including RI Coastal Resources Management Council and University of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Center staff – are traveling to the Canadian province from January 22 through January 27, 2017. The purpose of the visit is for the team members to share their experiences in the Ocean SAMP development and implementation with Nova Scotia stakeholders, who are exploring marine spatial planning.

Grover Fugate, executive director of the CRMC; David Beutel, the CRMC’s aquaculture coordinator; and Jennifer McCann, director of U.S. Coastal Programs at the URI CRC will be focused on the Bay of Fundy, where they will spend three days in the field

meeting with members of the fishing industry, aboriginal tribe members, researchers, government officials, and other stakeholders about marine spatial planning and the promotion of renewable energy and other issues related to what was developed in the Ocean SAMP effort.

On Thursday of that week there will be a workshop with the stakeholders pertaining to MSP, and the team will provide insights based on their time there in relation to the RI Ocean SAMP, and then will follow up with more formal, written recommendations after the visit to Nova Scotia. The World Wildlife Fund Canada is sponsoring the trip, which McCann describes as “an opportunity to hone in on one place and provide them with some suggestions for moving forward.”
In particular, the stakeholders in the province are interested in learning about the user conflicts that the CRMC, URI CRC and SAMP team had to address through the public SAMP development process, and in the document itself (including mitigation to the fishing industry).

“The Ocean SAMP was the first of its kind in the nation to address the issues associated with future use of offshore waters, and the management of them, including potential user conflicts,” said Fugate. “The SAMP team hopes to shed some light on possible solutions for Nova Scotia to pursue marine spatial planning and renewable energy options for their future, while adequately addressing the concerns of those who currently use those waters.”